"The Bureau of Justice Statistic found that the rate of sexual assault was 1.2 times higher for college-age women (ages 18 to 24) than non-students."
"It was more unlikely for those assaults to go unreported when the victims are college students, according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey."
The Stanford University rape trial. It's been buzzing through my Facebook feed with outrage, sympathetics, petitions, articles and pleas.
I glanced at the story a while ago - didn't open it. Maybe I opened it - whatever the case, I didn't read it.
A few days ago I opened the Buzzfeed article entitled "Here's the Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker".
I read it and was horrified.
Though there are many things I could focus on in this article, and many things I could be outraged about (and am outraged about).
However, the entire ordeal makes me realize WHY rape culture exists.
Over 68% of rapes go unreported and here's why: sh*t like this happens, in which the men get off easy, and the women become objectified. Today, while researching and reading about this case and the topic of rape, I happened upon this post featured on the Feminists United Facebook page:
Somehow, people always find a way to justify rape.
"She was asking for it." "She wanted it." "Hoe's like her deserve to be raped."
"Being drunk [we] just couldn't make the best decisions".
According to the victim's letter given on the Buzzfeed article, when describing the incident the Probation Officer ...stated that this case, when compared to other crimes of similar nature, may be considered less serious due to the defendant’s level of intoxication.
I'm going to write this in capitals because it makes me want to scream, and I AM screaming it:
RAPE IS WRONG. RAPE CULTURE NEEDS TO END. NO ONE DESERVES IT. NO INSTANCE OF RAPE IS "LESS SERIOUS". INTOXICATION DOES NOT MAKE RAPE LESS SIGNIFICANT.
RAPE IS ULTIMATELY UNJUSTIFIABLE.
And still, that's what this judge did by shortening his sentence to six months as opposed to the plea for six years.
"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him," Persky said, as stated CNN's article on the story.
This justification and lenient view of the crime that is rape is EXACTLY WHY RAPE STILL EXISTS.
THE ASSAULT HAD A SEVERE IMPACT ON HER. And it's his fault -- and it's not the first time he's committed this crime.
Reading through the comments on the Buzzfeed article, the very first one caught my attention: "If folks wonder why so many victims of sexual ass[a]ult don't come fo[r]ward, the slap on the wrist given here is one of the reasons why. What a complete and utter joke of a sentence for what this predator did to this young woman."
Did you know that only two out of every 100 rapists even serve time in jail?
I didn't.
There is something so so wrong with society that essentially says that a woman has NO right to her own body in so much that if she reports being abused, violated, and vilely used. We will only jail 2 of them?
Honestly -- why would you even report rape with statistics like these? SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE.
My heart is sad.
I feel sadness for this woman, I feel sadness for myself, I feel sadness for my fellow collegiate women, I feel sadness for women everywhere, of all ages.
I feel sadness for a woman who had rape become part of her identity, forever changing the way she carries herself and the way she lives the rest of her life.
My heart is sad because I know women who have been through this and have kept relatively silent because of how society has treated this issue so loosely. My heart is sad because of the silence.
My heart is sad.
I am also angry.
I am angry for this woman who said: "I used to pride myself on my independence, now I am afraid to go on walks in the evening, to attend social events with drinking among friends where I should be comfortable being. I have become a little barnacle always needing to be at someone’s side, to have my boyfriend standing next to me, sleeping beside me, protecting me. It is embarrassing how feeble I feel, how timidly I move through life, always guarded, ready to defend myself, ready to be angry."
I am angry - because that could have been any one of us.
I am angry for women everywhere of all ages because I have personally seen the emotional effects rape has. I am angry for women everywhere because this is something so many have had to go through and have kept silent.
I want to say in an idealistic way to stop being silent. To be - as this story is on the internet - cacophonous and loud about the dangers of rape, injustices of society and what we can all do to change it.
But the world is "not a wish-granting factory", and there is so much work to be done to overcome the rape culture that overshadows this country and this world at present.
It is steps like these - the anger and vehement outrage felt by so many worldwide due to this injustice, that will help stop rape culture.
You and I can be the change.
I was not always a feminist - there was a time where I hated the word, associating it with avant garde hatred of men and radicalism. I cannot count the amount of times I spat out the word feminist like it was akin to a swear word. Yet over time, many issues with likeness to this one at Stanford University have come to light, and as Desmond Tutu says, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
I will not choose the side of the oppressor.
Society might.
But I won't.
And neither should you.
It's time to give voice to the voiceless. Its time to empower the women all across the globe who feel weak and oppressed due to the vile nature of rape and abuse. It's time to start talking about it. It's time to stop justifying a crime that I personally equate with a type of murder. It's time to stop making excuses. It's time to step up as a nation and declare that this rape is wrong. It's time to stop letting rapists off easy, and making women feel like they are at fault in some way.
It's time stop rape culture once and for all.
It's time to stop being silent - but more than that, it is time to listen.
Stop making rape okay.
